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I agree with tofu...who is anyone to say his or her "reality" is any more valid than someone else's reality. Hell - my reality now is far different than it was 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago...and who am I to say that it won't be different 5, 10, 20, 30 years from now?

Congratulations on the trip plan! It is said that travelling is a state of mind and I believe that you have the right state of mind for this endeavour. Being young surely helps, as well!I too, although not particularly young, enjoy "rough travel" and as this is an "ADVENTURE cycling" website, feel that your trip surely counts as an adventure!Hmmm, going to be tough to maintain a vegan diet while on the road. It's that whole protein thing...Well, pack soft coolers and load up on the tofu. If you're finding that your performance is suffering from an incomplete vegan diet, don't sweat it, the trip is more impotant than the food you are eating. If you have to, canned tuna and eggs are pretty cheap to buy.When you finish the trip, go back a vegan diet, don't feel guilty about the diet change and LOVE how you are going to be changed by this trip and the great stories that you will be telling friends and loved ones, for a long, long time.

Not being a vegan, I can't realistically comment on cost/ease/etc. of obtaining food/etc. except that in the southwest (SW Missouri thru central NM), people do like their meat. A lot of the small towns you will be going thru will not look kindly on people dumster diving (not judging, just giving the local mentality) and you may very well be hassled out of town by the local PD if found out. They in turn will probably notify the next town to look out for you. Again, while not judging, you WILL be looked on as a vagrant/bum, not as someone chosing to spend their money differently.

As anyone who is toured long distance, you will be asked the same questions over and over. One will be how/waht do you eat. In this (southwest) part of the country, it would be in your interest to avoid talking about dumstering.

As far as camping, if you ask the local PD/church/park dept. you can usually camp for free or a couple of bucks IF there is not a commercial campground nearby. There are not that many places in the country to hide during daylight hours and do not be suprised to be awoken by someone pointing a shotgun at you telling you to get off their land NOW. Asking for permission is usually better here than asking for forgiveness when dealing with someone's land in theis part of the country. Cattle rustling is still very active and occasionally people are shot while passing thru on someone's land so be careful.

As someone mentioned earlier, stopping and asking someone if there is anywhere nearby to camp inexpensively may result in an invitation to stay at their house. The problem is that if you have not showered recently and look a bit scruffy those invitations will be much harder to come by.

I know this sounds negative but it is meant to give a fairly realistic outlook of what you can expect in this part of the country. I wish you the best of times to you on your journey!